Hidden We Remain
by Kitty.M.Smith
Summary: An AU in which Hans, Anna, and Elsa take a walk in the garden during the party and discover a passageway leading underground. Elsa, in the process, may have found a cure for a certain icy affliction.
1. Discovering Hidey-Holes

**Hello, everyone! I have gone on a bit of a hiatus from fanfiction due to a lack of ideas, schoolwork, and a lack of lust surrounding a couple other stories that were just beginning to...drag. Anyhow, I have new inspiration and with it I bring to you this: a new AU I really enjoyed writing!**

 **I hope it's enjoyable. If you like it please leave a comment - I really, really appreciate comments - or follow/like the story to let me know you want to see more.**

 **Frozen - Disney**

 **Any Ideas, Settings, or otherwise that aren't immediately attributable to another company or otherwise - mine and solely mine.**

It had been many years since Elsa had attended a party, and Anna couldn't recollect one at all almost. She could remember some streamers and a little blue party gown with a white satin bow around the middle that her mother had put on her, but that was all.

Otherwise, parties were an entirely foreign element to her, and almost the same for her sister.

It made the one occurring all the more alluring. Anna ventured forth into the throng of it, soon finding herself swept by a dashing prince. Elsa could vaguely recall him being one of the Southern Isles brothers. She'd met a sum of them before the castle had been closed up; they were all polite and far too charming for their own good. This one was much like them, though she couldn't name him for the life of her. She stayed near the front of the party, a smile on her face that was surprisingly genuine, her lips forming words when she was approached by various of the parties attendants, from newcomers to old friends of her parents and various men who hoped to vie for her attention as suitors. They were all very polite, though, when she refused a dance. Some stayed for idle conversation. Some did not.

Eventually Anna approached with the young prince. Her eyes were lively like Elsa had never seen them, and her arm was hooked firmly with the redhead's. He was quite tall. Elsa slightly wished she'd chosen a pair of heels instead of flats for the dance. He seemed kindly enough, and was certainly handsome. He had a swuave look to his hair, and his form was fit in a way that suggested he was one of many of the brothers that pursued military careers, since he hadn't the slightest chance of gaining the throne. His figure was slender, the lines of his hips and shoulders simultaneously gentle and masculine.

 _Good taste, dear sister._

"Elsa! I'd like you to meet Prince Hans!" Anna almost bounced as she unlatched herself from him and flung her hands at him in an enthusiastic gesture. Hans chuckled amiably at her antics and gave a bow.

"Your Majesty, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance." A voice as smooth as silk. Whether it was trained or natural was up for debate. Elsa gave an appropriate head nod back.

"Pleasure to make yours, Prince Hans."

"He has 13 brothers Elsa - can you believe it? _13_. That's - that's just so _many_."

Elsa nodded, wondering if Anna had gotten into the champagne. Or perhaps it was just a high from the party; Elsa was experiencing a bit of one herself. The atmosphere was jovial and kind. Splendid, one might say. Elsa would have described it as _calming_ as she found the situation drastically less anxiety-inducing than she had expected, which made it all the more relieving and less stressful. Her new gloves helped, too.

"Anyway, Elsa, I, uh - we, uh, we're wondering if you'd, uuuuh..."

"We were wondering if you'd care to join us for a walk? It's a lovely night." Hans said.

"Yeah! And it's not like you're going to be dancing or anything. We could just, you know, walk around the garden." Anna's eyes repeatedly fell to her feet as she spoke, "or, or something. You know, it's not like a big deal if you don't want to come, I just - we just thought -"

"A walk would be nice." Elsa said. The summer air was still warm, and the guests wouldn't much note her absence. And if they did, there were plenty of guards and staff who would see her and the young couple exit down the hall that led to the main doorway out to the garden. Anna looked overjoyed by her response, as well as a bit shocked, and failed at hiding both. Hans just inclined his head politely, and they all walked out of the ballroom and out to the garden.

The air hung heavy. It was oddly humid, especially for June, but nonetheless enjoyable. The garden of the Arendelle castle wasn't a particularly expansive one, but it was still rather large and held an appropriate amount of exotic plants, as well as local stor nokkerose whose white outer petals gleamed blue in the moonlight, and geitrams with their little pink flowers all in clusters, and then tulips and poppies and an assortment of peculiar colored lilies, all laid in beds encased in stone that matched the walkway that sprouted with blaveis whom found home in the moist, mossy spaces between the gray brick. They went down the main line of flowers, the scents mixing and floating into Elsa's nostrils in a perfume that she couldn't quite name.

They passed under an archway woven with ivy. Elsa walked with slow, regal steps beside the couple. They seemed to be slowing their speed to keep up with her, which made a fleck of nervousness creep up her throat. She almost started walking faster to accommodate them, but then that would notify them that she had noticed and felt a bit like a burden, which may or may not make them feel guilty or otherwise. She could feel ice creeping on her fingertips, and clasped her hands together tightly.

"So, Your Majesty, are you eager to start really running your kingdom?" Hans asked when they all paused to admire some bluebells.

Elsa wondered how a man with such a formal tone could have caught Anna's attention. Then, looking at his face, she figured why. "Certainly."

"Are you worried on doing so alone?" He laid this one down carefully, like setting down a basket of eggs. She got the feeling Anna had told him some things in the short time they were chatting in the ballroom.

"No." She lied.

"I'm glad to hear." He said.

"Elsa's always been good at the leadership stuff. She'll do great, I'm sure!" Anna pitched in, smiling at her sister. It'd been years since she'd seen her look so happy. While they _had_ seen each other, daily at dinner and not-quite-daily at other areas of the house, their conversation was usually sparse and awkward. They normally wouldn't bring up anything about each other, or Elsa's impending take-over of the kingdom. Especially not after their parents deaths. The longest conversation they'd had had been about chocolate, and whether or not to pay the fee for shipping a very large box of German truffles to the castle (they'd decided, in the end, to do so and catch the delivery man at the door before their parents could find out what was what. They'd split it evenly.)

"Thank you Anna." Elsa smiled.

They continued walking. The air was heavy with both heat and uncomfortable silence. It was broken by Anna chattering to Hans about the garden and how she and Elsa had once, a very long time ago, ripped the roses out at the roots from the bed in the corner and stuck them on the seat of their Nana's dinner chair as a present for mother's day. "When she sat down - oh, wow! I don't think I've ever heard an old lady scream so loud."

"Or curse so profusely." Elsa found herself adding. The incident had been before the accident concerning Anna and her ice powers. It was one of the fond memories she looked back on when she really wanted to calm down, pretending nothing had happened between then and now to change things.

"Wait, you didn't take out the thorns?" Hans looked down at Anna, amused.

"Haha, no, we forgot!" Anna threw her head back and laughed. Elsa giggled softly.

"Then how did you get the roses out of the ground without hurting yourselves?" Hans blinked rapidly, stopping them all beside a stone bench, nestled in front of a large marble brick with two marble tulips in full bloom on either side of it. Pots containing wildly colored daisies sat on either end of the bench.

"Oh, we took the Gardener's gloves! He didn't even notice when we took them, or when we brought them back!" Anna grinned.

Elsa smiled, though at the true memory. They'd actually stolen the Gardener's hedge trimmers to cut the roses out, before the four and seven year old had figured out they were far too small for the machines and had opted for Elsa freezing the stems and just pulling the whole darn thing out. The ice had melted by dinner, and Nana had sat her big fat posterior on the cushion without noticing her thorny present. Honestly it was a completely innocent mistake. Mostly. The girls had giggled shrilly when their grandmother leaped from her chair, cursing the heavens and the brimstone and twirling around in a fire-breathing circle of old fashioned petticoats and too much jewelry.

Nevertheless Hans laughed, leaning back against the marble wall with the tulips. He paused a moment, looking at one of the tulips, and rubbed his thumb on one of the petals. "Marvelous little figure," he said, now standing and examining it closer. "Wait a minute, what's this?" He pointed to the base of the flower, where there seemed to be an outline around it. Anna and Elsa looked at each other, then shrugged. Hans pushed the tulip. There was a cacophony of old gears and mysterious grinding metals, followed by the bench Hans had just been sitting on falling to level with the stone brick pathway and the marble back sliding backwards, revealing a staircase.

Anna clutched her hands to her breast. "Oh my goodness! A secret passageway!"

"Leading where?" Elsa wondered. "It can't go very far, the castle is in the middle of the ocean."

"Well this is exciting." Hans said, crouching and peering into the darkness below. "Neither of you knew about this? How long has this bench been here?"

The sisters shook their heads, Anna responding, "The whole thing is older than Elsa and I. I think Papa said it was even older than Grandpapa. But, oh, it's great! Isn't it, Elsa? A secret passageway, just like in a novel!"

Elsa's nose crinkled up. Hans continued to stare down the passage, then, cautiously, stepped forward. He got a few steps down before turning around and looking at Anna. "May I please have a lantern? That is, if you ladies wouldn't mind my exploring - or if you would care to join. I don't care if you do."

"Oh, I'll get it!" Anna practically kicked her heels as she grabbed her skirts and hitched them up as she sped back inside. Hans continued on, getting half inside, the darkness making him appear like the floating torso of a disembodied soul, then stopped and felt around the sides.

"It's a bit damp. I don't think anyone has been down here in a while." He said, looking at Elsa. She would have been focusing on controlling her breathing, if curiosity and apprehension surrounding the new found passage hadn't made her forget, for just a time, that she was a power wielder to be feared. She stepped forward, peering pointlessly into the dark.

"I can smell the must and dank. How far down do you suppose it is, Prince Hans?"

"Hans, please." He said kindly, if a bit sweetly. She ignored it like many other suitors that night. If he wanted a woman to be sweet on, he could have Anna. Providing he was properly sweet and properly kind. "But I really don't know. It could go down into the water - I've heard of tunnels doing that before. Or it could pass under the bridge and come up on the land. I really don't know."

Anna returned with a lit kerosene lantern and a satchel. Hans thanked her for the lantern and both he and Elsa eyed the satchel.

"Oh, I got some matches and candlesticks. And some water and more kerosene and about three dozen triple-fudge truffles. You know, just in case." She beamed at them. The elder sister and the red haired prince looked at each other, then at Anna, and then bobbed their heads and went back to the task at hand, Anna standing on her toes on the bench-turned-step. The lantern illuminated the rest of Han's body and shined on his hair in a way that made it almost appear yellow. What could be seen of the steps now showed walls that were laid in a way that resembled cobblestone, visibly moist and sprouting a few blaveis that had found their way to the crevices of the stone. Orderly steps led downwards into darkness.

Elsa wouldn't lie and say she was feeling entirely brave at that moment. She'd become worryingly aware of how cold and stiff her hands had become, and how heavy the hot air was around her. How it pressed against her skin and weighted down her clothes. She was, however, feeling about as curious as Alice had before she fell down the rabbit hole. And, just like Alice when entering Wonderland, she followed Hans and Anna down the steps, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.


	2. Of Gods We Are Descended

**Thank you to those who favorited and followed. I hope this pleases the senses. :)**

 **Frozen-Disney**

 **Otherwise - Mine**

When the party entered, the bench behind them rose back up into place. There was a moment of panic among them until Hans lit a nearby caged lantern, which through some unseen mechanism, lit dozens of other caged wall lanterns on either side of the curved staircase.

"Interesting." They said in unison, and then began down the passageway.

It smelled almost musty, but it accented the cool dampness that secreted from the spaces between the stone so that the overall smell was almost homey. Like a library that had the window open in winter. Though she could sense it, Elsa was never bothered by the cold, but rubbed her arms to give the illusion she was. Hans had popped his collar all the way up. Anna, poor thing, hugged the satchel for warmth.

"It is definitely _not_ summer in here." She mumbled.

"Are you sure neither of you have _any_ idea what this place is?" Hans moved the lantern around, illuminating nothing the wall lanterns weren't already lighting. It was all stone steps and stone walls, cirling in a downwards spiral that seemed to get smaller with each advancement downwards. Elsa was getting the distinct feeling of being squeezed.

"None at all." Anna said. "Papa never mentioned it, neither did Mama. I can't see why they never said anything before, if they knew...Though, why didn't they know? All you had to do was tap that little flower and whoosh! Secret passage way."

"Actually I kind of had to push it reasonably hard." Hans said, moving ahead of the sisters as the hall became too narrow to accommodate them in a row of three. "I don't think anyone could find it by accident. I mean, I did, but that's because I saw the outline under the flower. We have similar passages with these sorts of entrances all over the palace back home."

"I don't think we have any secret passageways. Other than this one." Anna mused, slowly removing a truffle from her bag and stuffing it in her mouth.

"We do, actually, but all of them just lead to different rooms in the castle." Elsa commented. Anna looked at her and said, with her mouth full, "how wud yew know?"

Elsa almost told her it was from their exploring as children. At least, that was the foundation. It'd become a bit of a hobby for her to discover the nooks and crannies of the castle after the accident. She'd run around at night, plagued by either boredom or insomnia, tapping every brick and stone she could find, and tugging every lamp or light and looking behind every tapestry. She'd found two passages that led from her room, one to Anna's, which she admitted she used once in awhile to tidy the poor mess that was the girl's living quarters when she wasn't inside, and the other that led to the kitchen and was perfect for late night snacking excursions.

Instead, she said, "I stumbled upon a book on it. And there was...was that time, when we were kids ... don't you remember?"

Anna paused, her chewing slow and thoughtful, then gave a single jerk of her head in confirmation. "I think it was, uh, from our room. Right?"

"Mhm." Elsa stopped talking after that.

The staircase became more narrow. They were forced into single file, Elsa in the back as her cape was easily tripped over. Hans continued to lead, lantern at his side since those on the wall still lit the way. Elsa could see by the tilt of her head that Anna was admiring the young man's behind. She would have scolded her if she hadn't caught herself doing the same.

Then they came upon a door. It was a nearly-medieval wooden one, with a large ring in place of a doorknob and many bolts and nails that didn't seem needed for the function of the door. The hinges were three times the size of normal ones, and surprisingly showed very little rust. Hans took the liberty of ripping it open and stepped through with the sisters in tow. The room beyond had high ceilings and seemed to be stone like the passageway; nothing else could be seen by the light of the staircase lanterns.

Hans groped the walls inside until he found another lantern, lit it, and then stood to the side of the doorway and stared.

The room was indeed stone, and had higher ceilings than Elsa thought possible. They couldn't be that far underground, could they? She didn't think they'd walked that long. Then again, she might have just been very focused on not saying anything to Anna about her powers while still giving good answers to her questions.

There were three tapestries on either wall in varying shades of blue. When Elsa stepped in and looked at them, she got a strange, numbing sort of feeling in her gut. This quickly morphed into a lead-weight in her stomach sort of feeling when she saw what was on the tapestries; people with nearly white hair and blue eyes, spouting snow from their fingers. Some were naked - which she noticed brought a blush to Hans's face - and others wore what seemed to be clothing of ice. Anna gasped.

"Whooooaaa. They're so pretty!" She turned to Elsa, "They kind of look like you, Elsa!"

"Is it some kind of strange...civilization?" Hans mused, glancing at Elsa and then back to the tapestries. Elsa tried her best not to look at them and gripped her hands together, feeling thin ice that coated her skin crunching under their cover. She shuffled over to the end of the giant room, where there was a piece of paper, almost thick as leather, with ancient scrawl across it, pinned to a wooden pedestal. She glanced over her shoulder, seeing Hans and Anna still enamored with the various tapestries, and read.

 _We the people of ice and snow._

 _Hidden we remain like this chamber, of leadership and power we possess._

 _Of the Gods, we are descended._

 _Nymphs and faeries, of us, are jealous._

 _Humans of us are fearful._

 _We are not known, but hunted when found; rarely loved, often hated._

 _We are cursed._

 _Cursed to hide._

 _Cursed to die._

 _Cursed to feel and not receive feeling back._

 _There is only one way to expel this malediction from us so we may once again be normal;_

 _To find the first line; the pure ones._

 _To find them, one must -_

"Elsa?"

Elsa whirled around and saw Anna heading towards her. She clenched her jaw and forced her lips to lay casually around her teeth. Her heart thumped in her ears and her knees were weak. She didn't think she'd breathed or blinked the entire time she was reading the parchment. She put her arms behind her back as if she was stretching, secretly tugging the thick paper from its holdings.

"What are you doing over here? You find anything? I found a dust bunny and some more of those flowers in the walls, but otherwise there's just those weird tapestries. Hans can't find anything either, but kinda wants to take one of those tapestries out, but I dunno if -"

"I don't think that is the best idea. T-Taking the tapestries, I mean." Elsa leaned back against the pedestal. "I don't think they were really, uh, meant to be disturbed. You know?"

Anna nodded. "Yeah, I guess I know. It's just kind of - well actually _really_ weird. I mean, why are they throwing ice around? Why do they all kinda look like they're related to you?...Why are they _naked._ "

Elsa faked a sneeze as she ripped the paper from its last two holdings. Anna said bless you, then quickly ran over to the pedestal as Elsa took a side step and turned away from her, paper clutched in one hand behind her back as she rubbed her supposedly perturbed nose with the other.

"What's this? Is this what you've been looking at?" Anna tugged at the little bits of paper that were left at the pinnings. "Wow, look at this paper! It's so _old_. It looks older than all the staff put together. And you and me. And Hans!" Elsa began rolling the paper while Anna was distracted, back towards a tapestry. "And this pedestal, too! Wow, guess everything is old in here. And dusty. Doesn't look like it's been touched in ages. But the paper is gone - I mean I know that was obvious first thing - but I wonder where it went. Did you see any paper like this, Elsa? Around this thingy, perhaps?"

Anna looked around the pedestal and tried to lift it. Elsa turned around and pretended to be looking while flattening the rolled up paper and folding it over once, tucking it between her corset and the bodice of her dress. When she turned back around Hans was looking with Anna and gave her a strange glance.

"Do you see anything, Hans?" Anna asked, leaning over to look under the pedastal in a way that made her and Hans's hips brush together.

"No, I haven't found anything, and it doesn't seem Elsa has either. While this is very...strange, I think we better get back to the party before they wonder where the Queen and Princess have gone." Hans jerked his thumb behind him, and Elsa hurriedly agreed. She wanted to finish reading the paper immediately.

She had to find out how to get rid of her powers, and quickly.


End file.
